Sharjah: The expat and his young son died instantly when their driver lost control of the vehicle

A British father and his seven-year-old son were killed when a dozing driver ploughed into them as they were walking in the street in the United Arab Emirates.

The 48-year-old man and his son died instantly in the horrific road accident, which injured six pedestrians and left the driver hospitalised.

The incident happened at 1am on Friday during a long bank holiday weekend to mark Eid, the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

Police in Dubai said there were nearly 1,600 road accidents over the bank holiday in that emirate alone.

Most
were caused by drivers ignoring road regulations by driving too fast,
changing lanes without warning and not paying enough attention to the
road, said colonel Khazraj Majid Mohammad, deputy director of Dubai
police's command and control centre.

The
British expatriate and his son were killed in Al Nahda, a residential
district on the border of Dubai and its neighbouring emirate Sharjah.

Police
said the Indian driver had fallen asleep at the wheel of their
Chevrolet Tahoe and lost control of the 4x4, which then veered off the
road and ploughed into the group.

The driver, who has not been named, told officers he was exhausted and stressed after working throughout the public holiday.

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He was taken to Kuwait Hospital in Sharjah for treatment and is being held by police while they investigate the incident.

The
two victims were among eight people killed over the weekend in Sharjah.
Early on Saturday six members of a Pakistani family, including four
children and their parents, died when their Nissan Altima hit a barrier
before flipping over and bursting into flames. All six victims died at
the scene.

The UAE's roads
are notoriously lethal with an average 5,000 driving offences committed
every day. According to police records, there were 400 crashes in the
first two months of the year, resulting in 33 deaths.

Notorious: There were nearly 1,600 road accidents over the long Eid weekend in Dubai alone, police said

Recent figures from the World Health Organisation show there are 37.1 road deaths every year per 100,000 inhabitants in the UAE - more than 10 times the number caused by road accidents in the UK.Ramadan sees the number of road accidents in the Islamic country soaring as fasting Muslims race to get home in time to break their day-long fast at sunset.

Last week a family of five, including a nine-month-old baby, were killed when their car ploughed into a vehicle which had stopped in the middle lane of a motorway.

And in July, 20-year-old Mohammad Vahedna, an Indian student based in London and visiting family in Dubai, died when his bright yellow Ferrari hit a kerb at speed, then flipped and smashed into a tree before turning into a fireball.

The supercar hit the tree with such force, it split in two before bursting into flames as his brother Hashim, 16, watched in horror from a car in front. The pair had been out for the day with friends go-karting at Dubai Autodrome.

In a separate incident the same month, three restaurant employees sitting on a wall waiting for a lift home after work were mowed down when a Mercedes spun out of control and crashed into their kitchen in Dubai.

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United Arab Emirates: British father and son, 7, killed in road crash after driver falls asleep at wheel